“The Case for Reparations” is an article by Ta-Nehisi Coates that explores the gap between white and black Americans in terms of achievement, wealth, health and general wellbeing over time. Coates presents a passionate argument where he suggests that the observable gaps in the mentioned aspects are attributable to deliberate policy decisions.
Coates begins his article by exploring the discrimination exhibited against black landowners in the American south in the late 19th century and the early 20th Century. Using the story of Clyde Ross, a black man born in the Mississippi in the 1920’s, Coates shows how blacks were terrorized by the white man and forced to live a life that hugely resembles servitude in spite of the fact that slavery had ended decades ago. Debt peonage was imposed on black landowners and as payment, many were forced to share their crop earnings with their supposed former landlords. Many of these debts were unscrupulously imposed on black people and involved the southern states’ regimes partnering with white landowners to prey on blacks.
Coates then moves to discuss the progressive racial housing policies in the city of Chicago once again using the case of Ross, who had now immigrated to the city. Coates talks about the predatory white house agents who exploited black house owning hopefuls. These agents would peddle contracts where they would sell homes to black families at inflated prices and later evict them when they defaulted in payment even by a little margin. Once again, Coates exposes an apparent collaboration between regimes and federal agencies meant to alienate black people completely. A perfect example of this is the Federal Housing Administration, which was formed by the national Congress in the year 1934. This agency was meant to assist people acquire homes more easily through insuring private mortgages and consequently causing a drop in interest rates, as well as a decrease in the down payment size. However, this agency only helped once again to alienate blacks who because of the neighborhood rating system used by FHA could not quality for its federal insurance scheme.
Institutional racism is once again exposed in increased segregation patterns in Chicago. Coates for instance shows that whites were extremely apprehensive when blacks moved into their neighborhoods and in fact, many of them moved out. Black movement into previously exclusive white neighborhoods would lead to a fall in house prices, and many whites, therefore, tended to move out once black families moved into their neighborhoods. A perfect example is the North Lawndale neighborhood which was slowly transformed into a ghetto throughout the years as blacks moved in and poverty levels rose steadily.
On a summary note, Coates suggest that current policy decisions appear to against the progress of blacks. He gives several statists tics and patterns regarding the black man that seem to prove this. For instance, he shows that it is very likely for black people born out of poverty to plunge back into poverty in the future. He also mentions that a black man’s income may not necessarily translate into living in a good and decent neighborhood. He shows, for example, that blacks who make around $100, 000 would live in the same neighborhoods with whites who make $30000 annually.
The institution discrimination and racism exposed in the policy making is traceable to the days of slavery. Coates holds the opinion that the government should look to correct these sins of the past and should not ignore them. Reparations should be people who have suffered from this historical injustice and by doing this, Coates states that this would be a representation of America’s maturation from its myth of childhood innocence to a wisdom that is fully worthy of its founders.
Works Cited
Coates, T N. "The Case for Reparations - The Atlantic." N.p., 21 May 2014. Web. <http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/05/the-case-for-reparations/361631/>.
